Five of Wands

The great wand of the Chief Adept, with the winged sun and a phoenix, stands between two lotus wands and two phoenix wands, all crossed, over a field of flame.

Geburah, Severity, in Atziluth, the world of emanation. Severity or Strength, the power that breaks what Chesed has built so that it can move: motion, disturbance, the pentagram. Geburah is Mars. The Fives are Geburah in the four worlds and are the hardest cards of each suit, because the settled four has been set in motion.

Geburah in the world of Fire: the settled four set in motion, disturbance. Saturn in the first decan of Leo weighs down the lion's fire, and the strain shows as strife.

Saturn in the first decan of Leo (0°–10°, about Jul 22–Aug 1). Saturn is time, limit, structure, old age and the boundary of the known. On the Tree it is Binah; among the trumps it is the Universe, where Saturn and Earth together seal the work.

Leo is fixed Fire: the lion, the heart, the height of summer, pride and generosity. The Sun rules it. It is the kerubic sign of Fire, and its trump is Lust. The trump of Leo is Lust.

This decan is ruled by the Prince of Wands, whose arc runs from 21° Cancer to 20° Leo. The two Shem angels of the decan are Nith-Haiah and Haaiah.

Motion: the solid set moving, disturbance, the pentagram, the microcosm entering matter. Geburah, Severity. The Fives are the crisis cards of each suit; the Hierophant is trump V.

Intuition in conflict with limits; the drive meets resistance and turns combative. The Wands are usually read as the intuition function in Jung's typology, an interpretive convention rather than a text of Jung's.

Rider-Waite calls the suit Wands, Rods or Staves. Its small cards carry scenes; the Thoth small cards carry the suit emblems arranged geometrically, with the keyword printed at the bottom and the colours of their Sephirah and decan. The Golden Dawn title (Lord of Strife) is shared by both traditions.

Saturn at its best gives integrity, patience, endurance, wisdom, self-mastery, authority earned. At its worst: fear, rigidity, depression, coldness, control, scarcity mindset, self-punishment, tyranny.

Leo (“I will”) brings generosity, creativity, warmth, courage, leadership, loyalty, playfulness. Its shadow is vanity, arrogance, need for applause, drama, domineering.

Together: Saturn is opposite its own sign here and works against the grain. Dignity explains part of the title and the Sephirah explains the rest: a planet at home in its sign can still sit in a hard sphere, and a weak planet can be carried by a strong one.

The Sun crosses this decan around Jul 22–Aug 1, so it is the decan card of anyone born then; their court card is the Prince of Wands. Find a birthday.